Electronic Arts Posts Better than Expected Results for Fiscal Quarter

Video game publisher Electronic Arts has announced that it has posted better than expected results for the third fiscal quarter, which ended on December 31, although it has failed to beat the outlook that Wall Street analysts have linked to the company.

EA has managed to bring in more than 1.65 billion dollars (1.25 billion Euro) using non-GAAP accounting rules, which is an increase of about 15 percent when compared to the same period in 2010.

The retail goods division accounted for most of this sum and saw the biggest increase over the third fiscal quarter of 2011, while the digital goods division has also seen a significant increase of more than 78 percent over the previous year.

The biggest success in this space was the newly launched Origin digital distribution service that is now reported to have 9.3 million users and that has created more than 100 million dollars (75.9 million Euro) since it got launched.

When it comes to packaged video games, the best performers for Electronic Arts have been Battlefield 3, developed by DICE, which managed to go over the 10 million units sold mark, and FIFA 12, which managed to move the same number of units to gamers all over the world.

EA also says that it has seen good initial performance for the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO that now has 1.7 million registered players, while selling over 2 million units.

For the current fiscal quarter Electronic Arts believes that it will see overall revenue on a non-GAAP basis of between 925 and 975 million dollars (702.9 to 740 million Euro).

EA is preparing to launch an action role-playing game, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, and a first-person shooter called Syndicate during the month of February, and the final title in the long-running Mass Effect series from BioWare arrives during March.